Minnesota’s 6-9 power forward will enter training camp on Dec. 9 weighing in at 240 pounds, down about 25 from his playing weight at the end of last season. ‘Haven’t been this low since my freshman year in high school,’ quips Love, 23, the former Lake Oswego High standout.

The secret, clearly, is beach volleyball. Still not sure he fits in a pair of skinny jeans, but better conditioning is a good sign for his production this year.

For NBA owners — even during a lockout — this remains a frightening proposition: Their best players getting injured representing their country in international competitions.

So far through this summer of Olympic qualifying there have been some injuries but fortunately nothing major.

Now you can add the Timberwolves new No. 1 import Ricky Rubio to the list of guys who have been injured. He sprained his ankle Saturday in a game against Slovenia and sat out Sunday’s rematch, according to FIBA.com. He will be evaluated again in a few days, according to the report. Which means he should be fine when EuroBasket starts on Aug. 31, where Spain will be a favorite to win it all (the top two get spots in the 2012 Olympics tournament).

Also, Rudy Fernandez injured his right arm in the first half and sat out the second half of Sunday’s game for Spain. Fernandez is now part of the Mavericks, where owner Mark Cuban has long expressed concern about these international competitions and what they do to his players. And yes, Dirk Nowitzki is playing for Germany in EuroBasket.

The overseas game allows more contact and physical play than the NBA, so you can expect to see a few more.

The biggest injury of the tune-ups so far remains Omri Casspi, who tweaked his knee and likely will miss EuroBasket all together for Israel.

These injuries are especially big for NBA players during the lockout, as they have to get their own insurance. It’s also a concern for the countries’ basketball programs, which had to take out insurance against the contracts of those players in case they get injured and then cut by their NBA teams.

Of course, with an extended lockout everyone will have plenty of time to heal.

The players are not winning the public relations battle with the lockout. Frankly, they can’t. The average sports fan knows the owners are ultra-rich, but they don’t relate to 20-somethings making millions. The players tend to get blamed for a lockout, no matter whose not budging.

The NBA players realize they are going to come out of these negotiations with less than they had going in, like almost everyone in this economy.

But they are not going to submit and tap out. And that means games will be lost. For an ide of how the players view things, check out these quotes from Kevin Love, who spoke with Andy Katz of ESPN.

“We all know we’ll have to sacrifice but something has to be done,” Love told ESPN.com Tuesday night. “It has to be sooner than later. We have to get the ball rolling. We can’t wait around until October or November and then nothing gets done. The owners will keep stalling and obviously they have more means than us to lock us out.”

“I want to play basketball,” Love said. “I want us — the players — to sign a great deal. I want us to make a compromise with the owners but not sign what they’re proposing. We’ll play hardball if we have to. I want there to be an NBA season but it’s also apparent that we’re going to miss games.”

Games are going to be lost. And that is going to hurt the NBA more than the owners and players seem to realize. A lockout in this economy is going to anger fans and it is going to be a long time before they come back.

Everytime a coaching vacancy has come up, Rick Adelman’s name has come up. Which makes sense, the guy has won pretty much everywhere he has been, and when given real talent he has knocked on the doorstep of a title. Who couldn’t use a proven winner of a coach?

“Right now I don’t plan on doing anything, just taking some time off,” Adelman said Monday at Illahe Hills Country Club in South Salem, hosting the 22nd Rick Adelman Golf Classic…

“I don’t have any plans to next year, no,” Adelman said. They had me interviewing a couple of places that I never even went to,” he said. “It’s all part of it now. If you don’t have a job and you’ve coached in the league, the first thing that happens if a job opens up, they throw the same names out there.

“Sometimes you know things are happening, but until you hear from teams, I don’t believe a lot of things I read,” Adelman said.

The Timberwolves are the lone remaining opening, and Adelman reportedly had a phone conversation with GM David Kahn, but that never sounded like a fit for both sides. If they have not met face-to-face, it’s not happening.

There shouldn’t be another opening for a while, no coach will get fired during the lockout (probably, never underestimate the Clippers organization). So maybe Adelman can rest for a while. I just hope not for a full season. I’ll miss seeing his name in rumors.